Dry Food Recommendations (got 4 cats - details inside)

[ldg]

:lol3: I think I forgot to say how much I was feeding them. I was splitting basically one 5.5 oz can of food and one 3 oz can of food at each meal between 8 cats. I feed them four times a day. That works out to about 4 ounces of wet food per cat daily. And most of them didn't finish the food at each meal.

 

[silverleica]

Hello! Nice to meet you, Mystearica! I hope i could give some useful tips

I am completely agree on what LDG said previously. Cats are obligated carnivore & they actually don't need carbs. Although most kibble contains high carbs, at least you could always have option to choose the grain-free one.

I'm so interested about this type of dryfood (grain-free, as we called it 'holistic-type'), that i keep on searching for more & more information since I adopted my lil' Baron last month. I even have switched his food for about 4 times now since his arrival (from Friskies, then went to RC Babycat, now Nutrisource & mixed up w/ Felidae & Nature's Variety Instinct & will completely change his food to Felidae mix NV's Instinct after the transition passed)

Nowadays, there are many grain-free brands out there. Orijen, EVO, Nature's Variety Instinct are just few to mention. These grain-free diet is more healthier for cats since they don't contain useless fillers such as corn & the 'devilish' gluten meal on it. So, if you can't afford to switch their diets totally to wetfood/rawfood/cooked food, feeding them up with this kind of food will be much better. And, as LDG said, you can always dilute them with water.

You could also give them rawfood/cooked food at least once per two days for a healthier option. & if you do give them cooked, make sure you give them the broth too & if they show no interest in devouring them, you could mix them up with a spoonful of good-smell canned food (usually cheaper price canned food has gorgeous smell) to trigger their appetite.

I am a bit envious that most people who lived there could get many better brands & cheaper (in price) canned food there. Good brands canned food here is very expensive, cost you around 4USD per can.. & they don't sell them bulk.. So I still couldn't afford to switch them completely to canned. & I haven't even found any stores here that carry EVO. I also heard that Natural Balance is good in quality but affordable at price, so you might want to try them too (we don't have that here )

For the water, i don"t have a water fountain, but my furball is a great drinker. He could pee 5-6times a day. The trick is using filtered water our country doesn't have drinkable tap water, so mineral water is a household staple needs. But i do read it somewhere that said that mineral water is not that good for cats, since they still contain minerals even if it's just a little. Fortunately, my house have a water filter tank, the water is usually used for cooking purpose, so I give him that since he came here & he drinks a LOT until now! (my houesemaid once said to me that the water tastes better than cooked tap water so maybe that's why he like the water so much )

I do know that water fountain have their own filter, but many reviews said that it's actually useless because it's so small, and also need to be replace often. So maybe if you could afford (or already have) that kind of water filter, you might want to use that to fill your water fountain

Good luck & hope it helps!

 

[noxcnx]

I have 4 cats as well and when selecting dry food I make sure that it is high in protein and free of additives, wheat, soy or corn. Blue Buffalo* was my first choice and they have varying types for different feline conditions. A big bag costs about $36-$40 plus tax. I use to feed it to my cats and was amazed by how much less they had to eat because they were actually getting full and could digest the food easier. It also cut down on how much they had to use the litter box as well, because they just weren't eating as much. I actually only went through their largest bag every 4-6 weeks, because they just didn't need to east as much. I switched to a different local brand from Zamzows with the same ingredients, because I like to support local business - but again, look for a product that has actual meat ingredients, vitamins and minerals, but is free of additives, wheat, soy and especially corn. 

None of my cats like soft food, so I have no input there.

*There was a recall on Blue Buffalo's soft canned food products a few years back, so I never purchased any of that particular product. The dry food was great, however.